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Shiloh Baptist Church is growing under ambitious pastor

The Rev. Jasmin Sculark has made friends and enemies at the African-American church

By JOHN HILTON Daily Record/Sunday News

Updated:
03/14/2012 05:47:56 PM EDT

The Rev. Jasmin Sculark leads the Shiloh Baptist Church choir during worship songs at the West Locust Street church in York. Sculark said she has tried to build new bridges into the York community during her first decade at Shiloh. (DAILY RECORD / SUNDAY NEWS -- PAUL KUEHNEL)

Walk past the West Locust Street church Sunday mornings and you can hear her. She delivers emotional, frenetic sermons with a handkerchief in hand to wipe the sweat from her brow.

Away from the pulpit, Sculark leads the church with the same frenetic style.

After 10 years at the helm of Shiloh Baptist, Sculark has butted heads with some longtime church members, but continues to charge ahead with expanding the church into the York community.

In 2007, Sculark pushed for the purchase of the former Bethany United Church of Christ building, 740 W. Locust St., for $600,000. Services are held there now, while the original Shiloh church at 629 S. Pershing Ave. serves as church offices and hosts weekday Bible study.

The building purchase split the church, with 10 members filing a 2009 lawsuit in York County court. The suing members have not returned to Shiloh, Sculark said. The church attorney is handling the lawsuit, she added, which remains active.

Of the lawsuit, Sculark said: "It has not stopped our growth or our progress." Clarence Allen, attorney for the plaintiffs, declined comment. The plaintiffs could not be reached for comment.

Changes needed

The daughter of the Rev. Charles Boothe, a Baltimore native, Sculark was born in Trinidad and Tobago. She came to the United States to go to Practical Bible College in Vestal, N.Y.

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, and later received her master's in theological studies at the Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio.

Sculark earned a doctorate of ministry degree from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, in 2007. She was an associate pastor at the Mount Olivet Baptist Church in Dayton, where her father is senior pastor, when Shiloh invited her to lead a revival in 2002.

The church had just dismissed its pastor and was impressed enough with Sculark to invite her to interview.

The Shiloh Baptist Church congregation responds to the Rev. Jasmin Sculark's message of hope and renewal during a recent Sunday service. Sculark said the church has grown during her decade at the helm, with new members attending services from Southern York County. (DAILY RECORD / SUNDAY NEWS -- PAUL KUEHNEL)

She was quickly offered the position and claims to be the first female pastor of a York Baptist church.

Sculark says she came to York with the idea that changes needed to be made.

So she made them.

"They say it takes five to seven years to turn a traditional Baptist church around," she said from her office. "And I can say it takes closer to the seven."

One big change came with the introduction of technology and social media. Shiloh has added a computer lab for the younger set and is active on Facebook and Twitter.

Sculark has turned Shiloh into a two-campus church with several new ministries and programs. And it is a church whose reach extends to Lancaster, Harrisburg, and, in particular, Baltimore.

Shiloh has welcomed more than 1,000 new people to Sunday services over the past decade, Sculark said. A recent Sunday 11 a.m. service drew several hundred worshippers, including about a half-dozen visitors.

Boothe has opened several doors for his daughter in churches in Baltimore, Sculark said. As a result, the Shiloh pews are filled with Baltimore-bred worshippers.

"My church is now 65 percent people from Baltimore . . . who have moved to places like Red Lion, Shrewsbury and Dallastown," Sculark said proudly.

Letitia Johnson moved to York from Long Island in 2005. Sculark is "truthful" and able to ride out difficult times with strong leadership, Johnson said after a recent Sunday service.

"I had been to a couple different churches, but when I came here, I felt like I arrived," she added.

Sculark said she wants Shiloh to be an "inclusive church." The congregation had one white worshipper when she arrived a decade ago. While predominantly African-American, several different races attended a recent Sunday service.

"I don't see black or white. I just see people," Sculark said. "When I came to my church, I said 'There will be no discrimination.'"

Transitional ministry

Sculark likes to talk about what she has done to grow Shiloh. Like the youth ministry she started. Or the kindergarten and pre-K programs. Or the new House of Refuge transitional ministry the church is supporting.

Set to open by May, the House of Refuge is a three-bedroom home at 754 W. Locust St. that will help men who are leaving prison transition back to society.

Shiloh is going to provide the ministry as the men attempt to rebuild their lives, said Charles Culver, an addictions counselor who started the New Vision House of Hope Supportive Housing Program in Baltimore.

About 70 to 75 percent of men in the Baltimore program made a successful transition by finding jobs and avoiding a return to crime, he added. House of Refuge expects to receive nonprofit status and it has its own board of directors, of which Sculark is one.

Sculark wanted to "open up a transitional house. With the experience we have from Baltimore we said, 'OK, we'll give you a hand,'" Culver said.

House of Refuge is in the process of coordinating its efforts with the York County court system, Culver said. Residents will stay for up to 90 days, and the home will have a night manager who will conduct night meetings, he added.

The home will be locked during daylight hours while men are looking for work or receiving counseling. A second home for women is in the planning stages, Culver said.

"When people come out of drug programs or they come out of prison, they have nowhere to go," Sculark said. "Somebody has to give them a chance."

@jhilton32; 771-2024

Culture of change

Shiloh Baptist Church cites a lengthy list of successes under the Rev. Jasmin Sculark.

In the future, Sculark said, the church would like to continue to work with the less fortunate and start a Christian school in York.

Church successes over the past decade include:

-- Empowerment Community Development Corp. formed in 2003 with a $143,000 nonprofit grant. Under this ministry, computer training classes for seniors and teens are offered in partnership with the Capital City Project, After School Tutoring Program and Summer Program (SMART Kids for Christ)

-- Purchased additional parking lot in 2004

-- Ordained three women as deacons in December 2005 -- the first female deacons in the history of the church.

The lawsuit

In June 2009, 10 members of Shiloh Baptist Church sued the Rev. Jasmin Sculark, and several church leaders. The members claimed they violated church bylaws in borrowing $635,000 to buy a church on the west side of the city, using the church property as collateral.

According to church bylaws, the trustee board cannot spend more than $500 without approval of the church body.

The plaintiffs allege that Sculark took an "illegal" vote in January 2007 to purchase the Bethany United Church of Christ building, 740 W. Locust St., without ensuring that those voting were Shiloh members, according to the lawsuit.

The 10 members ask the court to order Sculark and the deacons to allow them to worship at the church's original Pershing Street church again, halt any attempts to renegotiate or sell the mortgage on the building and to conduct an audit of church financial records.